Best of Banana Bread
Nothing Like Banana Bread
One of my favorite comfort foods is banana bread. I love to eat it with butter melting over the slice of warm bread, along with a cup of tea or coffee. I love to bring a whole loaf out of the kitchen for guests, piping hot with the aroma daring anyone around to eat only one slice. Most of all, I love being able to use up all the bananas I have sitting in my freezer.
My kids LOVE bananas. For each of them, this has been their first food, and even now with my oldest being 6 years old, they each have a banana first thing after waking up – while I get a cup of coffee. To avoid going to the grocery store every couple of days, I have to stock up on bananas every time I go grocery shopping. But when you do the math, 3 kids eating bananas every day for a week is 21 bananas! I get quite the interesting looks from grocery employees as they ring up my purchases…
With this many bananas each week, occasionally one or two will ripen more than my kids think is permissible. (It took me a long time to convince my daughter that eating banana bruises did not actually give you bruises yourself…) My husband hates seeing these go to waste, so he’ll throw these older bananas into the freezer, whole with the peel intact before they are totally wasted.
However, this poses a problem. With a constant flow of bananas through our house, the danger of being attacked by a frozen banana when opening the freezer door gets to be quite high. When I have a very high Banana Danger Rating in our freezer, I make up a huge batch of banana bread. Frozen bananas lend themselves quite nicely to this recipe: as they thaw, they’re already mashed for you!
I take these whole, unpeeled bananas, run them under hot water for a few seconds, and peel as normal. Then I’ll let them sit in a bowl for ten or twenty minutes to thaw and they’re ready to go! Plus the over ripe bananas make the best banana bread, from the consistency, flavor and sweetness. Here’s my favorite recipe.
3 C all-purpose flour
1 Tablespoon baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 cups mashed bananas (6 medium)
1 ½ C sugar
½ C cooking oil
1 C chopped walnuts (optional)
Grease the inside of two loaf pans (8×4x2) and set the oven to 350 degrees.
In one bowl combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon. In a second bowl, mash the bananas (you really don’t need to measure the bananas. Anywhere from 5 to 7 bananas can be used). Add the eggs (but make sure you beat them before putting them in with the bananas!) and stir together. Add the sugar and cooking oil, again stirring everything together. Pour this mixture into the flour mixture, stirring just enough to combine. It’s ok if there are lumps and a little flour that’s not totally stirred in. Add the nuts if you’re choosing to use them, stir as little as possible.
Pour this into the loaf pans and bake in the 350 degree oven for 50 to 55 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted into the middle of a loaf comes out clean. Cool the pans on a wire rack for 15 minutes, then remove them from the pan and cool completely on the rack. Wrap these in aluminum foil and let it sit overnight or freeze immediately. I always make at least a double recipe like this because one is NEVER enough!
When you’re ready to eat this bread, thaw overnight on the counter if it has been frozen. When you’re ready to eat, place on a plate and microwave it on high for two minutes. It will taste fresh baked and your house will smell amazing!
